Step 7: Final assembly

Step 8: Make a box

It seemed like they needed a box...

I was inspired to make these shoes on my ride home one evening when I witnessed a beautiful woman riding in high-heels along Market Street in San Francisco. True to form, I will acknowledge that I noticed the sexy handmade bike before the woman, and what was (perhaps, unfortunately) most noteworthy to me was how awkward the connection was between the pedals and the shoes.

Having recently built up a bike for my beloved, I was immediately taken with idea of making high-heels with a clipless cleat. I had been keen to build a pair shoes for a while and the curves of a high-heel shoe seemed like an inviting challenge.

Indeed, it was a challenge. The project spanned about 18 months, and sadly, outlived my relationship. However, don’t let this dissuade you – if I had worked straight though on the project, it would have only taken a few months, and if you can make these shoes, you are probably capable of not loosing the relationship with a wonderful girl.

Step 1: Find a benchmark

I surreptitiously looked through her collection of heels until I found a pair that looked most suitable for riding – if any are – and well worn. I then photographed these shoes and used photoshop to extract the base curves. I then pulled these curves into Solidworks and began lofting the sole

Step 2: Drawing the sole

This was a little more interesting than expected. I tried many combinations of extrusions and lofting before finally giving up and lofting the entire thing.

The challenge in lofting the entire shoe is, as usual, building a nice set of guide and profile curves. I made a spine curve down the center of the shoe from the top view. I then projected that across the side profile of the top and bottom outline of the shoe. This formed outline guide curves for the front of the shoe.

Once I had the top and bottom spine curves, I created a set of planes perpendicular to these spine curves and set about making the profiles.

The final trick was to separate the forward loft from the heel and loft the heel separately.

I also recessed a section in the top surface of the sole to allow space for a leather insert. I modeled this surface as a sheet metal loft so that I could unwrap it to create the pattern for the leather insert.

The final Solidworks file is attached. This is modeled as a size 6 shoe.

Step 3: Realizing the Sole

Material: I found a nice chunk of Zebra wood at Macbeath Hardwoods in Berkeley (Macbeath was super helpful and has a huge selection!). I am not sure that I would use Zebra wood again since there seems to be so much sensitivity on machining in a direction which is commensurate with the grain.

Pre-processing: Rather than trying to get the toolpath perfect, I did a quick lofted path with a ½” ball endmill and planned on a lot of finish work. In retrospect, a more subtle approach would have been less work in the long run.

Machining: I trued up the block with a large shell mill so that when I flipped the part, I would be able to find the center again. In total, it was about 5 hours of machining (Zebra wood is incredibly dense – it would have been easier to machine aluminum). Obviously, wood is not great for machine tools, so actively cleaning as you go is a good idea.

Step 4: Finishing

Finishing was lengthy. Since I was insensitive to the grain while planning my toolpath, there were chunks of wood that had been pulled out by the cutter in the machining process (it remains unclear to me whether climb or conventional milling is better). I filled these with epoxy.

For the sanding, I started with a pneumatic angle die grinder which is an amazing tool for finishing almost anything – it is lightweight and powerful. Following this, there was a lot of manual sanding. Still more sanding and ever more sanding.

Finally, when things looked reasonably smooth, I propped the shoe up on the tips of drywall screws and painted on a thin layer of epoxy. I made a mistake here and added some mico-ballons to the epoxy to increase the viscosity for filling voids in the wood. This has the undesirable effect of replacing the voids with small white dots… ugg.

After more vigorous sanding of the epoxy layer, we sprayed the shoes with a layer of Polyurethane which made them beautiful… do not skip this step.

Step 5: Design the straps

The straps were an enlightening adventure unto themselves. I was surprised to find that straps on heels are commonly symmetrical left to right across the foot. However, all feet that I have seen are far from symmetric, and hence, it seemed like an asymmetric design would be far nicer.

I experimented with modeling her foot from memory and creating developable lofted surfaces (sheet metal parts in Solidworks). This was useless, and since the surprise was … well, over (see step 4) … it was a lot easier to do the typical dress making approach and cut to fit.

Using some of the basic curves I had developed in Solidworks, I cut out a set of paper templates and fit them to her foot. After about 7 iterations, I found something that liked.

Step 6: Build the straps

I went to Britex in San Francisco and bought some nice, supple blue leather. I then added seam allowance (4 mm) to the paper pattern in Solidworks and cut the straps out with a laser cutter. Leather cuts very nicely with a laser.

I then attempted on a number of occasions to sew the straps. After failing on all attempts, I capitulated and hired a friend who is a pro, Bree Hylkema, to finish the straps. She did a wonderful job. Sorry, I don’t have any pictures of this – imagine a very skilled woman sewing with intimidating precision.

In finishing the straps, Bree added some stiff canvas into the center of the layers of leather to prevent the leather from stretching.

Step 7: Final assembly

The final assembly was straightforward. I attached the straps with 3 mm machine screws. Machine screws in wood are awesome – pre-drill with the standard tap drill size and add the screw. For the back of the strap, I had to remove material to hide the strap thickness under the sole leather.

Some of the leather for the sole had been misshapen during the sewing process. I found it easy to bring it back into shape with an iron and a light misting of water.

Not exactly. Some people use their toes or heel of their foot for applying pressure to the pedals. I use the instep of my foot, but that does not mean I can not use my toes or the heel of my foot. Your concerns are duly noted though.

I'm a woman, I'm a cyclist, and I can confidently say that riding around on these would not be an issue with the ankle or any other muscles in the leg. No woman would be wearing these for any extended period on the bike. Women who commute typically do not ride very hard to get from point a to point b. (Mainly because we don't want to show up soaked in sweat). I certainly wouldn't wear these if I were commuting 10-20 miles every day. But riding around a city . . . I definitely want.

You said what I was thinking. Too many comments on this thread are treating these like tri or long ride shoes. I commute and for short rides, it's not worth carrying around extra shoes. Nice to see a sensible comment.

The correct part of the foot for efficient control of a bicycle is the ball of the foot. This is the same part of the foot that has evolved in humans for providing the thrust for walking, sprinting and running. It is no coincidence that the cleats for cycling shoes are located beneath the ball of the foot. Note that a properly sized bicycle will not fit properly if the incorrect part of the foot is used.

Umm, so I am assuming that you gave her the shoes, right? Because, if not, I am a cyclist and my name is Zoe...just sayin'. :-) They are beautiful and the first thing that caught my eye was the embroidered Z. Very nice.

It is an auspicious name.... Well, if you can climb Old La Honda in less than 16 mins, dance Double Points (performed by Emio Greco), surf Ocean Beach in double over-head or kite the same - I'm just sayin' that I have a second block of zebra wood.

you may also like:http://www.instructables.com/id/Powder-Coat-a-Bike-Frame-with-Logos/

Yeah that's true that these kind of high heels may cause injury but no doubt that it is wonderful collection of heels and people get motivated for design these kind of high heels and shoe buckle is just because of the increasing demand of high heels shoes.

Nice work on the shoes, Corwin! I also made a pair of my pumps into cleated pumps several years ago, but mine were much simpler. Sacrificing a pair of existing pumps I had, my husband helped me drill through the bottom of the shoe, then we re-enforced the soles at the ball of the foot with Specialized footbed shims, and screwed the cleats into the inside of a Shimano shoe plate. I tried Time, Shimano SPD, and Crank Brothers cleats and pedals, and I find the Crank Brothers pontoon cleats work best for both walking stability and ease of clip-in/clip-out.I've put over 60 miles on these pumps, all in the name of silliness. -Laura :)

i don't know about the girl putting this to practical use, but its bloody beautiful and romantic!! being a guy, i couldn't help but awe at the shiny wooden sole u made.. curvy, smooth, detailed, and beautiful!!Keep up the good work man!!

I tell my kids "be nice to him/her. others are watching". So still giving her what you made for her is very admirable in my book. Obviously, others concur.

Maybe attach a high speed spindle to your mill to turn a router bit for wood. Standard routers turn at 25000 rpm so if your mill's spindle doesn't crank up that fast, adding a temporary spindle of some sort may help.

Exotics are hard to work so it may make little difference. Being an Instructable contributor leads me to believe you'll keep experimenting. Please post results.

These are amazing! You should patent them :D (If indeed, that is what one does in these situations.) I know I would totally buy a shoe as attractive as that-- the only heeled bike shoes I've seen have been UUUUGLY. http://publicbikes.com/p/Camper-Mar-BCN-Peep-Toe-Yellow-Pump-Womens

They are beautiful, though I might ask that you also epoxy a strip of traction around the contact edge of the toe and heel to keep her from slipping on smooth surfaces, like wet tile/ice/super shiny hardwood. I love these shoes.LOVE them.

these are amazing. the only thing i would suggest adding to these is a little rubber grip to the heal and the foot ball part. having worn a pair of wood shoes before, they are quite slippery! lol. great work sir!

As a lover of both clipless road biking and wearing High Heels everyday...I think you just created the most amazing gift EVER. My husband does not thank you because I will now be showing him these plans and hinting at Christmas :)=

As a reversal on the idea - and possibly a marketable suggestion - is to do your photoshop process with a whole bunch of shoes, of varying heights, and try to come up with a custom-contoured pedal that will fit the curves of the majority - ideally still working for flat shoes as well - then make and market the pedal as an accessory for the shoe-loving-bike-loving wearer of pumps and mules.

Cool concept and great work....but they sort of remind me of old lady type shoes (just the tops, not the heels). I still might wear 'em though but now might be more likely to attempt it on my own shoes. My 79 yo mother likes them alot and thinks they're very cute. Nice piece of work!

Clarification based on a number of comments: I hesitated to mention anything about the relationship but relented because I thought it humorous. BUT to be clear, I did [most] of the breaking in this case, so it is my [stupid] fault and the woman in question deserves no criticism. Apologies for putting that step in...

I don't know what issues you might have had, but I would say that she is going to have to walk (or cycle) in those shoes a long way before she meets someone who thinks about her as much as you clearly do. But hey, sometimes that either isn't enough or just not what a woman wants. Lovely shoes... and nice bike frame, BTW.